How OpenAI’s Sora is Evolving Like TikTok

When OpenAI released its Sora video app last month, it seemed like an attempt to develop a TikTok-like viral video service with artificial intelligence at its core. And in some ways, usage of Sora has echoes in how TikTok is used.

In a recent all-hands, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that 20% to 30% of Sora users created AI-generated videos through the app but a majority of those people then shared the videos privately with friends or family rather than sharing them publicly in the app’s main feed, according to a person who heard the comments. That implies that, at most, 10% to 15% of Sora users are sharing their videos publicly in the app.

That’s similar in some ways to how TikTok users operate, according to a February 2024 report from the Pew Research Center. It found that 25% of U.S. adults on TikTok posted 98% of all the publicly accessible videos. “The typical TikTok user posts seldom, if ever,” the study found, noting that about nearly half of adults had never posted on the site.  

That reality hasn’t stopped TikTok from becoming a hugely popular app with a big advertising business. But could it be an issue in the future for Sora, particularly if OpenAI introduces ads?